


Their Own Stories

by DesertVixen



Category: Ever After High
Genre: Ever After Next, F/M, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-11 04:47:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28269387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DesertVixen/pseuds/DesertVixen
Summary: The future Ever After, where people write their own stories.
Relationships: Dexter Charming/Raven Queen, Raven Queen & Apple White
Comments: 6
Kudos: 23
Collections: Yuletide 2020





	Their Own Stories

**Author's Note:**

  * For [kafuka](https://archiveofourown.org/users/kafuka/gifts).



For generations, the students at Ever After High had prepared to take over the roles they were born to play – whether they liked them or not. Everyone had a role, and they were always told that every role was important. After all, how could there be a story if there was no conflict? How could there be a hero with no villain? So throughout the years, students agreed to accept their fates and protect their world, even if it meant playing a part they hated.

Until Raven Queen, the daughter of the Evil Queen, declared rebellion by refusing to sign the Storybook of Legends. Until she refused to accept the destiny that had been assigned to her. The last time someone had dared to act, they had chosen to run away.

Raven had chosen to fight destiny and pressure, and she had won.

Their destinies were their own, thanks to Raven’s magic and their adventures in Wonderland. 

None of them had disappeared, as they had always been threatened. They were free to make their own choices and live their own lives without fear that they would vanish from the world.

For the people who had dreaded being trapped in their stories – the last thing Raven wanted was to become like her mother, the villain who only cared about power for power’s sake – it was a huge relief. Not all of them had wonderful roles to play. For instance, Briar Beauty was a princess, but one doomed to sleep for a hundred years and wake up alone in a strange world. Some of them simply wanted different stories, like Darling Charming, who was bored with being the damsel in distress. 

For others, it had been a little scary. After all, some of them had excellent stories, like Apple White. True, she had to spend some time in a cursed sleep, but otherwise it was a classic story of good conquering evil, becoming the fairest of them all, and living happily ever after. The prospect of losing that story – of everyone losing their stories and disappearing – had been one of the things that drove Apple to ensure everyone conformed. The stories staying the same had kept them safe.

Now they would have to write their own stories.

*** 

And write them they had. 

Sometimes Raven couldn’t believe how her story had turned out. She had freed herself from the weight of becoming the Evil Queen and putting her former roommate into a cursed sleep, and what had she done with that freedom?

She had chosen to join forces with Apple and be co-queens. She had chosen to succeed her father, the Good King, rather than become the next Evil Queen. It would be Raven’s magic that ensured her mother stayed in the mirror prison, her magic that kept Ever After safe for people to write their own stories. 

Their partnership had also opened a suitable role for Dexter Charming. He had been a little concerned after it was revealed that his older brother Daring was not actually destined to be Apple’s Prince Charming, and follow in their father’s footsteps. Instead, Daring was destined to be Rosabella Beauty’s prince (after facing a few hairy situations). 

Dexter had wondered if this meant that he was supposed to step in and be Apple’s Prince Charming, or alternatively if he was going to start growing a winter coat of his own. Apple was a good friend and a great girl, but it was her co-queen that Dexter had true feelings for. Their wedding had been one of the biggest parties Ever After had ever seen.

Raven thought that perhaps the greatest surprise of all was that Apple still had not found a Prince Charming. 

And yet, her co-queen didn’t seem to mind. Apple had chosen to focus on improving the lives of the people in the kingdom, working with Raven to help them understand that it was okay to write their own stories, even helping them with ideas. They didn’t have to keep living someone else’s story just because that was how it had been done, once upon a time. At the same time, it was all right if someone decided that the old story was the one that suited them best – as long it was their choice. All the stories were important.

Now, Raven thought, she was pretty happy with how their story had turned out.

How all their stories had turned out, actually.

Briar had become the premier party planner in Ever After (although she did still have bad habit of falling asleep at inconvenient times) rather than sleeping for a hundred years. 

Briar planned the parties, but no party was complete without a Ginger Breadhouse confection (embedded spells optional). She had chosen to put a different spin on her story by building fantastic gingerbread and candy mazes for kids to explore, embedding candy patterns in the walls to show the way out.

Ashlynn and Hunter had chosen to embrace their love of nature by creating protected areas of forest in Ever After where the woodland creatures were protected by magic. Ashlynn had even created a line of hiking boots worthy of any princess.

Darling Charming had gone on a quest in search of the lost fairy tale intended for a “Princess Charming”. It had been some time since anyone heard from her, but Raven had a feeling that Darling was enjoying herself.

Her dear friend Madeline Hatter had yet to find someone who loved tea as much as she did, but she didn’t seem to mind too much. Now that the enchanted barrier between Wonderland and Ever After had been broken, there were plenty of exchange students who found a sympathetic ear (and as many cups of tea as needed) at the Mad and Madder tea shop.

Lizzie Hearts had embraced her role as the Queen of Hearts, freeing her mother to spend more time playing croquet. 

Cedar Wood had finally become a real girl, much to her delight, but still found herself unable to say anything untruthful. She had moved to Wonderland, where it was rumored that Lizzie found her truthfulness refreshingly different.

And, Raven thought with satisfaction as she watched a small girl and boy run in circles around a drowsy Nevermore (twins, they discovered, seemed to run in the Charming family), it wasn’t just that they had all found stories that suited them that excited her.

It was knowing that their children had blank slates to write their own stories on.

She couldn’t wait to see what they came up with.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you liked it! I haven't played with this fandom as much but I liked your prompt.


End file.
